Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1887-04-28
HOMES IN HAVANA.
LINGUID SENORITAS.
kissing Thro' the Bars.
(NeWs and C6urier.)

k-NtUc NtH NOUftI.I
The well-to-do sugar, or tobacco, or ba-
mana merchant and the marquis, count,
&c, of Havana live in very much the
same style Of house. 1t is the exception
to find house over two stories high. \
well regulated residence is built of stone,
brick, concrete or solid plaster, according
to the means of the resident, and is con-
structed very nearly on a square founda-
ton. There is no second story piazza,
the place Of which is supplied by an iron
balcony in front Of each upper window,
a kind of sky basket in which the
family is hung out in sections every
night for domestic and exhibition purpo-
ses. The exterior front is painted in the
ad Hbit,m school of decorative art. The
huge door is usually red under the cor
nices will be found blue patches, the body
of the house will be in yellow or white
with touch of brown in stripes around
the doors and windows. The premises
are entered by Il huge wooden door, ex-
tending generally from the ground to the
ceiling. The door is as thick as the
ponderouS door of cathedral, and is
battened aud spiked and bolted like the
doors of a feudal -baron's castle. The
appearance of the door when shut is ex-
actly like that Of a huge steam boiler,
with its thousand and one rivets. On
either side of this door is what is called a
window, open also from the ground to
the ceiling. 1t is the exception to find
one of these fitted with glass. In lieu of
glass there are perpendicular bars of iron
from the top to the bottom, sufficiently
close together to prevent the escape of
the inmates or an incursion from the
street Inside, and sometimes outside,
there are folding lattices which are never
seen except very late at night or very
early in the morning. The door and the
windows just described open into the
drawing room, which occupies all there
is of a first floor. Above the drawing
room there is a chamber or two, the win
dows Of which are all adorned with the
romantic balconies previously mentioned.
Just beyond the drawing is an open
area open to the sky, and around which
the rest of the house is built. The area
is garden ii which the flowers bloom
all the year round. 1t is a garden, how
ever, with solid concrete or marble bed.
All the plants, such as young banana
trees, Indian laurels, pineapples, palms,
rose trees, geraniums and a dozen other
exotics to us, flourish luxuriantly in box
Is, pots, &c, and make up a miniature
forest of the most exuberant development.
There is no one so poor as not to have a
garden in his house. Flowers and plants
of the rarest kind in more northern
climes are common property all over the
Island of Cuba, as they are in all tropi-
cal countries. But there is q second sto.
ry piazza within the house, running
around the four sides of the court, on
which all the other chambers open. On
the ground floor" and near the drawing
room, is the kitchen. As there is not a
chimney in any private dwelling in Ha-
vana, the cooking is done in somewhat
primitive way. A charcoal fire is built
on a stone slab. Above that antique
hearth Is another stone slab over holes in
which the pot and pan and gridiron and
kettle sil in the solemn silence Of their
antiquated moulds. The cook, usually
black, sleeps in the kitchen and the rest
of the servants, white, black and yellow,
sleep promiscuously in the rooms on the
ground floor or in the garden in the night
shade of the banana and palm. As will
be readily understood, the smoke from
the kitchen blows where it lists, and dur
ing the cooks business hours roams al
will through the garden, into the parlor,
into the chambers, and thence scars thro'
the skylight to the bluest Of blue heavens.
The drawing room Is at once simple
but at the same time bizarre affair. In
the middle of the room Is an oblong piece
of carpet, on the long sides of which a
half,dozen rocking chairs are disposed